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p.38-39 Accessory focus 8:FOOTWEAR NEW TEMPLAT 10 08 04/09/2009 09:02 Page 39
Accessory Focus
carrying bits of shopping in the continued effort to avoid plastic bags. It
does everything a bag should; the fittings, stitching and construction of
a quality you take for granted, so durability was never in question. The
real test therefore was people’s reactions.
My day job is with our cricket business, which despite being craft based
and producing very fine handmade bats, does not normally elicit
excitement about handbags from the players who come in to see us.
Cricketers are understandably interested in their bats, pads and gloves.
Their wives and girlfriends however, are a very different story. When
we open our factory to players for bespoke bat fittings, the long-suffering
partners often come too and throughout the road test I observed their
strap to the bag, with a second detachable one for the tassel, which is a reactions to the bag. We attract very serious cricketers from all walks of
neat touch. The shaping of the bag at the base of the straps and the way life and their partners are no less discerning. Although you might think
in which the rolled handles are finished with gold studs catching the that strange women would not necessarily comment on each other’s
wrapped over leather, were all details that I loved and again elevated the clothes or bags, I have so often found that it is an ice-breaker. Every day
bag into that designer bag bracket. I know that I am not alone in that the Embassy was with me, whether at work or with friends and family,
succumbing to a bag just due to a single clasp, a detail so ephemeral as it would be moments before it was commented on and tried on.
to be undetectable to those testosterone fuelled wallet carriers, but to One lady who was in my office with it dozing handsomely on
women, part of a subtle language many of us speak very fluently. the desk scooped it up protectively and told me off for leaving
But, what really gives the bag the edge is another seemingly such a beautiful bag vulnerable to anyone who might wander
trivial detail: the lining. When you unzip this smooth, in. The speed at which it was tried on is no doubt down to the
sophisticated buttersoft chocolate nappa leather you reveal design and softness of the leather – it is very tactile and like
a riotous 60’s Pucci-esque silk lining in a hectic green/ a pet, demands to be picked up. It does not however,
orange floral which cannot fail to elicit a smile. A demand to house a pet, a peculiarity I, as a handbag and
cheeky design touch, which captures the humour pet lover, can never fathom, and my Jackrador India
Patrick Cox is known for. Although it also made would thankfully never countenance.
my eyes boggle slightly when scrabbling around So all in all, my infidelity to Mulberry has been a
for lost keys, it was the clincher for me, success and although I know I will not wear the
and I suspect a clincher for browsers Embassy exclusively – it will come out time and
in store. again, year after year. I am just hoping that the
The road test would ideally Patrick Cox tan croc Rehab will be keeping it
have been a few fashion shows company very soon…!
and a brief séjour in St Tropez,
but the reality was everyday
working life, with bag as com-
DETAILS:
panion and essentials carrier,
mostly being flung into the
Vicky tested the Patrick Cox Embassy bag,
back of a Landrover. It copes ad-
RRP £245
For more information on Patrick Cox
mirably with my brick sized diary
Accessories, please contact Mark Leighton
and all the other things I claim I cannot
on 01707 257 111 (Mobile: 07973428570)
live without. It looks best overloaded, even
SEPTEMBER 2009

FOOTWEAR TODAY

39
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